


Can Try To Sink Us (but I just swam)

by SilverMyfanwy



Series: The Rogers-Carter-Barnes HYDRA Bashing Honeymoon Tour of Europe and Other Interesting Instances [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Awesome Howling Commandos, Captain America: The First Avenger, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Hypothermia, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Sex, M/M, Period-Typical Sexism, Polyamory, Post-Captain America: The First Avenger, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Wedding Rings, Weddings, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-10-28 02:09:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20770784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMyfanwy/pseuds/SilverMyfanwy
Summary: In which Steve swims away from the plane wreck, Peggy's date shows up at the Stork Club, and Bucky makes a surprise appearance with a bowl of soup.





	Can Try To Sink Us (but I just swam)

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS:  
Minor grief  
Thoughts of how easy it would be to die in a very dangerous situation, but not in a suicidal sense.  
Very strongly implied sex.  
-  
Never posted a WW3some fic before. Very excited!  
Title from Cannonball by Skylar Grey feat. X Ambassadors.

Steve’s throat felt like it was closing in on itself. “Peggy, I’m- I’m gonna have to put her down.”

“Steve-”

“If I don’t do it, a whole lotta people are gonna die.”

Peggy let out a sob and Steve felt his heart break.

“I’m sorry, Peggy, I really-” his voice cracked.

“We’ll find you a safe landing spot, I’ll-”

Steve could hear the desperation in Peggy’s voice and he tipped the controls down. “Peggy, I have to do this.”

She sobbed again. “But you shouldn’t have to. There should be another way, I-”

“You’re gonna have to give me a rain check on that dance.”

“Saturday after next, 8 at the Stork Club.” Peggy said immediately, voice thick with tears. “Don’t you dare be late.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Steve paused. “You’re gonna have to teach me how to dance though.”

“We’ll take it slow.”

The line began to crackle even more.

“I love you.” Steve said thickly.

“I love you too. Oh, Steve, I love you too.”

“I’ll see you in a-”

The line went dead.

“Steve? Steve? Are you there? Steve? Steve!” Peggy listened, holding her breath in hope of an answer that never came.

She bowed her head and wept.

-

The water was freezing in a way that Steve had never felt cold before.

His first thought when he hit the water was that he was going to die.

A huge cloud of bubbles surrounded him, blocking his vision, and he thought about how easy it would be to close his eyes and keep on sinking until he met his husband again.

He pulled his arms down to his sides and kicked his legs, head craning for the surface. The plane was falling below him.

Steve’s only thought was Peggy, Peggy, Peggy.

His face hit the air and he took a deep breath of freezing oxygen.

He couldn’t see land anywhere but he didn’t really care; just grateful to be alive. Steve began to tread water and glanced up at the sky. “Thanks God.”

He took another deep breath and started swimming, praying that he wouldn’t catch hypothermia for the fourth time in his life.

-

He had no idea how long it took him to reach land, he just knew that he made it eventually.

When he reached land, he walked.

It rained, it snowed, and he’d never been colder or hungrier in his life, but he had to get back to Peggy, so he walked.

-

The first thing he asked the pilot of the search and rescue helicopter that found him was if Peggy was okay.

-

Steve sat in a booth in the corner, spinning the ice cubes around his soda. He hadn’t bothered asking for alcohol, knowing full well it would no longer soothe the butterflies in his belly. He’d collected his pay earlier that day and had immediately spent it on smart clothes, shoes and a hotel to stay in until the next boat to France left New York.

He felt starkly out of place with the glitz and glamour in the rest of the bar; the other patrons laughing and at ease.

It sicked him to the pit of his stomach to think of the soldiers like Bucky who would die in the mud that night with the American flag on their shoulder while their former neighbours drank champagne and wore diamonds.

He glanced up at the clock nervously, knowing full well that if Peggy was going to turn up that she would be exactly on time. The brass still thought he was dead, as the men who had found him had turned out to be French-Canadian, and Steve had held no wish to let his superiors know he was still around to fight for them straight away.

There were flowers on the bench next to him; small, purple and wrapped in paper. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d bought them.

At ten to eight, his palms were sweating.

At five to eight, his heart was pounding.

At three minutes to eight, Peggy Carter walked into the Stork Club and Steve Roger’s heart missed a beat.

She was wearing sleek black shoes, black tights and a red dress with her hair in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her lips were painted the same colour as her dress.

Steve was hardly aware of what he was doing as he got to his feet and walked through the tables to where she was standing.

She still hadn’t seen him.

“Peggy.”

Peggy turned around and the world stopped turning for a moment when she saw Steve.

One of her hands flew to her mouth and she took a staggering step backwards, eyes filling with tears. “Steve, Steve, how-”

“I made it out of the crash.” he smiled, noticing the tears falling down his cheeks for the first time. “I promised you a dance. Be rude of me not to show up.”

Peggy flung her arms around Steve’s neck and buried her face in his shoulder, crying freely. Steve breathed in the smell of her perfume- something faint and flowery that probably wasn’t manufactured anymore- and pressed his face against her hair, holding her as tightly as he could. “I thought you were dead. I thought I’d lost you both.” Peggy whispered. She pulled away, hands in his, and looked him up and down worriedly. “And you’re okay?”

“Serum worked its magic.”

Peggy laughed with relief and hugged Steve again. “I thought- I thought I was never going to see you again, I-” she looked Steve dead in the eye. “I need a drink.”

He laughed. “A drink you shall get. I’ll go and get you something, I’m sitting over there.” he gestured to the table.

“Are the flowers for me?”

Steve cupped Peggy’s face in his hands. “Of _course_ the flowers are for you.”

He kissed her.

-

They skipped the dancing and went straight back to Steve’s hotel once Peggy had downed the whiskey and made Steve explain everything that had happened twice.

Steve found himself standing at the edge of the room, with its plush carpets and elegant curtains, faltering rather a lot. “Peggy, may I- may I make love to you?”

Peggy looked up from untying her shoelace and pulled herself up to her full height. She reached underneath her collar and pulled out two wooden rings hanging on a piece of string around her neck, arching an eyebrow as she did so. “Steve Rogers-Carter-Barnes, you married me. You can plough me into the fucking mattress.”

-

Peggy didn’t bother knocking as she stuck her head through the tent’s door flap. “Boys, there’s someone I’ve brought to see you.”

“Who is it?” Morita asked.

“Come and see for yourselves.” Peggy took a step back and flashed a grin at Steve.

Gabe was first out of the tent. “How the-”

“Who is it?” Dum Dum asked.

“Captain America.” Gabe said, grinning from ear to ear. “Back from the dead.”

-

“You’re a genius.” Steve told Peggy flatly as they sat around a campfire with the other Howling Commandos.

Peggy grinned and took a swig from the bottle of something alcoholic they’d found in a long-abandoned house. “Thanks.”

She’d just finished telling them about her latest injunction with Colonel Phillips on their behalf, in which she had managed to worm them out of several forms and a meeting with the brass.

Peggy and Steve must have held eye contact for a little too long, because Gabe gave a loud sigh. “Alright, out with it. When did you make it official?”

Peggy took Steve’s hand in hers and gave Gabe a smug grin. “None of your business.”

-

“No mattresses here for me to plough you through.” Steve muttered dryly between kisses, giving the bedroll and the thin tent walls a wry look.

Peggy bit back a giggle. “Guess you’ll just have to make love to me then.”

-

“Where’s Agent Carter?” Steve asked Colonel Phillips at a meeting two days later.

“Agent Carter is away.” Colonel Phillips said briskly and opened his mouth to turn the conversation towards whatever it was that they were supposed to be having the meeting about.

“Where’s she gone?” Steve demanded.

Colonel Phillips took a deep breath. “Captain Rogers, I’m afraid I can’t-”

“That’s Captain Carter.” Steve said firmly. “I think you can.”

Colonel Philip’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh.”

“Where’s she gone?”

Colonel Philips discreetly tapped part of the map and Steve bit his tongue.

“How long?”

“She’ll be back in three days.”

-

“Captain Carter, Agent Carter’s returned. She’s in her office and she wants to see you.” Dugan told Steve in the corridor three days later.

“Thanks.” Steve turned and walked as fast as he could towards Peggy’s office without seeming suspicious. He reach the door and knocked twice. “Agent Carter? It’s me, Steve.”

“Come in.”

Steve opened the door and the moment he’d shut it, Peggy had her arms around him.

“I missed you.” she whispered. “I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye. I had to leave as soon as I was told I was going on the mission.”

“Are you okay?” Steve checked, pulling back to look her up and down.

She grimaced. “I am, but no thanks to Philips.”

“What did he do?”

“Didn’t give me all the information I needed.” Peggy muttered darkly. “Even though it was information he had.” she saw Steve’s face. “Don’t worry, I’ve already had words with him and I don’t think he’ll be doing it again.”

“I’m glad you’re okay.” Steve kissed Peggy.

“I hear you’ve changed your surname,” Peggy remarked with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

Steve blushed and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. The look on Philip’s face when he told me that Captain Carter wasn't on a mission was the best thing I’ve seen in years.” Peggy kissed him.

“It was the only way I could get him to tell me where you’d gone.”

“Well you won’t need to do that for my next mission. You’re coming too.”

“Just us?”

“Just us.”

-

Steve and Peggy stumbled back into their room wet, muddy and exhausted at three a.m. a week and a half later.

“Why’s the light-” Peggy started to speak but stopped.

Bucky was sitting on an armchair in the corner, eating a bowl of soup and wrapped in a blanket. “You didn’t think I could eat soup in the dark as well as with one arm, did you?”

The soup went flying as Steve and Peggy rushed forwards to embrace him.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm silvermyfanwy on Tumblr!


End file.
